LEADER 00000nim a22004815a 4500 003 MWT 005 20191125061635.0 006 m o h 007 sz zunnnnnuned 007 cr nnannnuuuua 008 191018s2018 xxunnn es i n eng d 020 9780062876324 (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book) 020 0062876325 (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book) 029 https://d2snwnmzyr8jue.cloudfront.net/ hpc_9780062876324_180.jpeg 028 42 MWT12157264 037 12157264|bMidwest Tape, LLC|nhttp://www.midwesttapes.com 040 Midwest|erda 082 04 940.548/6/493|223 099 eAudiobook hoopla 099 eAudiobook hoopla 100 1 Corera, Gordon,|eauthor. 245 10 Operation Columba--the secret pigeon service :|bthe untold story of World War II resistance in Europe|h[Hoopla electronic resource] /|cGordon Corera. 250 Unabridged. 264 1 [United States] :|bHarperAudio,|c2018. 264 2 |bMade available through hoopla 300 1 online resource (1 audio file (9hr., 35 min.)) : |bdigital. 336 spoken word|bspw|2rdacontent 337 computer|bc|2rdamedia 338 online resource|bcr|2rdacarrier 344 digital|hdigital recording|2rda 347 data file|2rda 506 Digital content provided by hoopla. 511 0 Read by Derek Perkins. 520 The fascinating, untold story of how British intelligence secretly used homing pigeons as part of a clandestine espionage operation to gather information, communicate, and coordinate with members of the Resistance to defeat the Nazis in occupied Europe during World War II. Between 1941 and 1944, British intelligence dropped sixteen thousand homing pigeons in an arc across Nazi-occupied Europe, from Bordeaux, France to Copenhagen, Denmark, as part of a spy operation code-named Columba. Returning to MI14, the secret government branch in charge of the "Special Pigeon Service," the birds carried messages that offered a glimpse of life under the Germans in rural France, Holland, and Belgium. Written on tiny pieces of rice paper tucked into canisters and tied to the birds' legs, these messages were sometimes comic, often tragic, and occasionally invaluable-reporting details of German troop movements and fortifications, new Nazi weapons, radar systems, and even the deployment of the feared V-1 and V-2 rockets used to terrorize London. The people who sent these messages were not trained spies. They were ordinary men and women willing to risk their lives in the name of freedom, including the "Leopold Vindictive" network-a small group of Belgian villagers led by an extraordinary priest named Joseph Raskin. The intelligence Raskin sent back by pigeon proved so valuable that it reached Churchill and MI6 parachuted agents behind enemy lines to assist him. Gordon Corera uses declassified documents and extensive original research to tell the story of the Operation Columba and the Secret Pigeon Service for the first time. A powerful tale of wartime espionage, bitter rivalries, extraordinary courage, astonishing betrayal, harrowing tragedy, and a quirky, quarrelsome band of spy masters and their special mission, Operation Columba opens a fascinating new chapter in the annals of World War II. It is ultimately, the story of how, in one of the darkest and most dangerous times in history, under threat of death, people bravely chose to resist. 538 Mode of access: World Wide Web. 610 10 Great Britain.|bMI6|xHistory|y20th century. 650 0 Homing pigeons|xWar use|zGreat Britain. 650 0 World War, 1939-1945|xMilitary intelligence|zGreat Britain. 650 0 World War, 1939-1945|xUnderground movements|zBelgium. 700 1 Perkins, Derek,|enarrator. 710 2 hoopla digital. 856 40 |uhttps://www.hoopladigital.com/title/ 12157264?utm_source=MARC|zInstantly available on hoopla. 856 42 |zCover image|uhttps://d2snwnmzyr8jue.cloudfront.net/ hpc_9780062876324_180.jpeg